The toughest industries, locations to hire staff

The toughest industries, locations to hire staff

There were 400,000 job vacancies in the first quarter of 2015 and the national job vacancy was 2.6 per cent according to a new survey from Statistics Canada.

The Job Vacancy and Wage Survey reveals that there were more vacancies in Western Canada than in Central and Eastern parts of the country with Yukon (3.9 per cent), Alberta (3.5 per cent) and BC (3.3 per cent) having the highest rates of vacancies.

Service support and other service occupations had the most job vacancies (42,000). This includes occupations such as food counter attendants, operators and attendants in amusement, recreation and sport as well as specialized cleaners. Service representatives and other customer and personal services occupations had the second highest number of job vacancies with 31,000.

Nationally, about 72 per cent of job vacancies were for full-time work in the first quarter. Management occupations (96 per cent) and natural and applied sciences and related occupations (95 per cent) were among the broad occupational categories that had the largest share of full-time job vacancies. In contrast, health occupations (45 per cent) and sales and service occupations (54 per cent) were among the broad occupational groups with the lowest share of full-time job vacancies.

The survey also asked employers about how long it was taking to fill vacancies. Nationally, health occupations, followed by trades, transport and equipment operators and related occupations, and then natural resources, agriculture and related production occupations, had the highest share of job vacancies that had not been filled after more than three months of recruitment efforts or had vacancies for which employers were constantly recruiting.

In contrast, business, finance and administration occupations, management occupations as well as occupations in art, culture, recreation and sport had the lowest share of job vacancies that had not been filled after more than three months of recruitment efforts or had vacancies for which employers were constantly recruiting.

The jobs facing the highest vacancies are the ones paying minimum wage or near minimum wage. In expensive cities like Vancouver, youth living at home are about the only ones able to survive on these wages. The gap between livable wage and real wages seems to be growing larger and will likely lead to greater recruitment problems in the near future. More businesses, I believe, will deal with this by hiring seniors who have some money coming in but not quite enough to live on. For these businesses willing to hire seniors, more part time and shorter shifts may be required to work best with this population.

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